Search Results for: "norman smith"

George Martin with The Beatles, 5 March 1963 © Dezo Hoffman Let’s do another brief audio comparison between the Capitol CD of “The Early Beatles” from a few years ago, and the newly remastered British version of “Please Please Me.” [audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/12ATasteofHoney.mp3] [audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/SEP/10ATasteofHoney.mp3] Here’s a photo familiar to Beatles fans. Recording engineer Norman “Hurricane” Smith is … Continue reading A Taste of Beatles

The Beatles, March 5, 1963 © Dezo Hoffman For my birthday, Denro gave me the remastered stereo CD of “Please Please Me,” the first Beatles UK album. It was recorded by Norman Smith, with an assist by Richard Langham, in a single session on February 11, 1963. A quick skip-through listen on my best gear … Continue reading Please Please Me

This is a promo video for the remastered Beatles CD’s that I grabbed from Amazon.com. [flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/SEP/BeatlesAmazon.flv 480 360] These CD’s are sort of a stand against the grain of lossy, compressed MP3 digital audio, but they’re still limited to 16-bit/44.1 KHz CD sound. I wish there were a standard, higher quality lossless digital format for … Continue reading Hit and Miss Masters?

Here is producer George Martin in 1963, with engineer Norman Smith, who is sitting at what appears to be a REDD.37 mixing board. When the REDD.51 was delivered it was positioned facing the window. The Beatles can be seen below.

For the technically inclined, or anybody who enjoys superbly produced books, I once again recommend the RTB Book: Recording The Beatles, by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew. In a way, the star of the book is the EMI REDD.51 mixing console. REDD is Recording Engineering Department Development at EMI. I previously posted pictures with the … Continue reading EMI REDD.51 “Stereosonic” Four-Track Mixer

Only a couple of weeks after the passing of Beatles recording engineer Norman Smith, Beatles road manager and business associate Neil Aspinall has died. It would take a long time to explain Neil’s relationship and roles with the Beatles, so I won’t even try. But it’s safe to say that without Neil Aspinall, the massive … Continue reading Another Beatles Death — Neil Aspinall